Close calls can spur action.
So, when downtown Edmonds’ landmark Pink House at Sixth Avenue and Main Street was saved last year only by the deepening recession, historic-minded citizens here decided to get serious.
“Suddenly, everybody is waking up and saying, ‘Whoa,’” said Andy Eccleshall, who is the chair of the city’s historic preservation commission. “I feel like (that) was a wake up call for Edmonds.”
The wake up call has led to a rapid expansion of the city’s new Edmonds Register of Historic Places. This month, the city is expected to add four new sites, as owners of eligible properties are joining the list. Only the Edmonds Museum was on the list until now.
The so-called August Johnson House, at 216 Fourth Ave. N, was added this month, making it the first owner-occupied home on Edmonds’ register, according to city officials.
Buildings on the register are eligible for small tax benefits and some special parking provisions.
Other new additions will be the Parmelle House, at 1228 Ninth Ave. N; the Odd Fellows Hall, at 542 Main St.; and the Fire Schoolhouse Site, at 233 Third Ave. N, which was the first school district in the Washington Territory when it opened in 1884.
The list establishes a city-controlled process for future alterations to historic buildings. Officials are working to make that process as pain-free as possible, said Eccleshall, noting that the register is not permanent, and property owners can remove their buildings if they choose.
But while an expanding register isn’t a final triumph for conservationists, it does create a level of protection for historic buildings.
That’s important in a city where each building has its own history, and its own story.
The August Johnson home was built for a Capt. August Johnson in 1905, and is an example of what single-family homes in the city used to look like. The home was moved across the street to make way for the Edmonds Conference Center.
“Our house isn’t fancy. It is just an old, clapboard, teeny, tiny farmhouse,” said Susan Bauer, who moved into the home in 2003 with her husband Steve Bernheim, a city councilmember. “When it was built, it was probably just an average home.”
Time is a funny thing, though. What was once average architecturally now seems like much more.
Bauer agrees. “Now, when you put it next to some other houses, it probably looks like a San Francisco painted lady,” she said.
Edmonds has long protected its history, and downtown is full of examples of old buildings with new purposes. The city’s historical museum was once a Carnegie Library, its Frances Anderson Center was once the Edmonds Grade School and its performing arts center was once its high school.
But not everything is protected.
The Pink House very nearly illustrated that this year.
The landmark was almost relocated out of the city last summer, as the company that owns the home hoped to build a new, two-story corporate headquarters. But by the time plans were approved, the credit market had tightened.
Fate isn’t always so kind, and that worries local historians, said Eccleshall.
“There are an awful lot of historic houses in this town, and right now they have very little protection from being demolished,” Eccleshall said. “If we are not careful, each of these places — one by one — is going to disappear.”
Reporter Chris Fyall: 425-673-6525 or cfyall@heraldnet.com
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